{"title":"Planet Labs vs Umbra: Earth observation compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/planet-labs-vs-umbra","comparison":"Planet Labs ranks 17 on the Space 100 with a score of 82; Umbra ranks 63 with 70. Planet Labs is ahead on deployment, production, commercials, progress and firepower. Level on technology, positioning and leverage. Planet Labs is based in San Francisco, United States, Umbra in Santa Barbara, United States. Planet Labs: Public, founded 2010. Planet Labs is named in 32 signals and Umbra in 23.","companies":[{"name":"Planet Labs","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/planet-labs","city":"San Francisco","country":"United States","stage":"Public","founded":2010,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Planet Labs is a US Earth-observation operator (~200 satellites launched) whose Pelican (high-res) and Tanager (hyperspectral) constellations are ramping, with FY26 revenue of $307.7M (+26%), its first full year of adjusted-EBITDA profitability and free cash flow, and FY27 guidance raised to $425-441M. Its growth engine is defense and intelligence (up 50% YoY, including a nine-figure Swedish Armed Forces deal and NATO extensions) on a backlog up 79% to ~$900M, though declining commercial agriculture and ~41% APAC concentration are mix risks. It has Google and NVIDIA partnerships and claims 98% recurring ACV.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":17,"score":82,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":9,"commercial":8,"deployment":8,"production":8,"technology":8},"why":"Planet operates Earth-observation satellite constellations, including SkySat, Pelican and Flock imaging satellites, and sells the resulting imagery and data.","segment":"Earth observation","layer":"Satellites & spacecraft"},"signals_total":32,"facts_total":56},{"name":"Umbra","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/umbra","city":"Santa Barbara","country":"United States","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Umbra is a US SAR operator with 12+ satellites launched (Umbra-12 in January 2026) at 16cm resolution, the highest commercially available, built at low single-digit-millions cost (the cheapest per performance in the field), plus a satellite-sales line building SAR sats for customers. It holds an NRO triple-anchor: an operational Radar Commercial Augmentation contract (August 2026, one of only three survivors of the five-company CRC evaluation), SCE Stage III, and an RF-products award. Revenue is estimated at 10-100m from NRO and commercial streams.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":63,"score":70,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":9,"firepower":6,"commercial":6,"deployment":6,"production":6,"technology":8},"why":"Umbra builds and operates radar-imaging satellites and sells high-resolution commercial SAR imagery for Earth observation customers.","segment":"Earth observation","layer":"Satellites & spacecraft"},"signals_total":23,"facts_total":28}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}